


Called By Any Other Name

by CaptainLeBubbles



Series: Carol Verse [4]
Category: LazyTown
Genre: Father Figures, Father's Day, Gen, Intergenerational friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-28
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-09-01 22:12:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16773919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainLeBubbles/pseuds/CaptainLeBubbles
Summary: One of these days, Robbie is going to punch Trixie's dad in the throat.





	Called By Any Other Name

**Author's Note:**

> Robbie's gonna adopt this kid one day.

Father’s Day was not a holiday Robbie ever gave a thought to. He knew it existed, of course, but much like other holidays such as Hanukkah, Canadian Thanksgiving, and Arbor Day, it was not particularly relevant to him and so he paid it no attention. Why should a day for fathers mean something to him? It wasn’t like he had a father to celebrate.

(He was aware, in some distant, abstract way, that he did of course have a father, or at least a biological donor, but his mother had liked many men and loved none. Robbie doubted that his father, whoever he was, even knew he had a son. And, moreover, he’d never cared.)

He wasn’t even aware today was Father’s Day, until he happened to pass by the kids on the way home. They were all seated at a picnic table with piles of arts-and-crafts supplies gathered around them, and Sportacus was nowhere to be seen.

(This was expected; Sportacus had crawled out of bed very early that morning, earlier than usual, and said he was going out of town for the day. Robbie had not asked where he was going, and had slept through whatever explanation Sportacus had given. It didn’t really matter. It just meant a day off for LazyTown’s number one villain, since his hero wasn’t around to bother.)

“Hi, Robbie!” Ziggy called, waving the lollipop permanently stuck in one hand.

Robbie halted, and decided to wander over and, if nothing else, encourage the kids to keep doing their arts and crafts, since that was nice and quiet. Besides, he liked the kids, even moreso when they weren’t being noisy.

“What are you brats doing?”

“We’re making Father’s Day cards for our dads,” Stephanie explained. She picked up a package of construction paper. “Would you like to join us? You can make a card for your dad.”

“I don’t have a dad,” he said, leaning one arm on the table. The construction paper actually did look appealing, though.

“Wha- but everyone has a dad!” Stephanie said, a little surprised.

“You live with your uncle, kid.”

“Yeah, but I still _have_ a dad! And I’m making a card for Uncle Milford, too. You really don’t have a dad?”

“Not one I know about.” He shrugged, not willing to get into his mother’s sexual history with a bunch of six to ten year olds. “Does it matter?”

“I guess not. But you could always make a card for someone who’s _like_ a dad to you, like Ziggy is.”

“Yeah!” Ziggy held up two pieces of construction paper, one of them adorned in a variety of sweets, the other of which had apple seeds carefully wrapped up and glued on. “I’m making one for Sportacus, and one for the Mayor! They’re not my dads, but they’re nice, and and they look out for me, and they’re teaching me how to grow up to be a good man who takes care of the people I love, and my moms said that’s what a daddy would do if I had one!” He nodded eagerly, setting the candy-coated card aside to work on Sportacus’s. “I already asked my moms if that was okay, and they said that I could have as many dads as I wanted, as long as they were okay with it.”

“Speaking of Sportacus, I haven’t seen him around today,” Pixel added. “And his airship’s not in the sky, either.”

“He went out of town for the day,” Robbie said, finally deciding to join them. He sat down, and was immediately handed a pack of construction paper and some markers. “I don’t know where.”

“He didn’t tell you?”

“He did, but he told me at seven in the morning, which is about the same as not telling me.”

“He went to visit his dad,” Stephanie said, and shuffled some of the craft supplies on the table so that some of them were in Robbie’s reach. “You know, since it’s Father’s Day.”

“He told you?”

“Normally we run in the park in the mornings, so he needed to tell me why he wouldn’t be there today.”

“Oh.” Robbie considered this, decided it checked out, and reached for a pair of googly eyes.

Robbie _didn’t_ have a father, nor did he have anyone in his life that he considered a father figure. However, Ziggy’s words had put him in mind of his cousin: he’d been sent to live with him at about nine or ten, according to his mother so that he could teach little Robbie how to use the chaotic magic he was just starting to grow into but which Robbie was sure was because he was too much of a handful for a woman with three other more well-behaved children to look after.

He could just imagine sending his cousin a Father’s Day card. But that was no reason he couldn’t make one, just for fun.

“We’re having a Father’s Day banquet at City Hall tonight,” Pixel said. “We’re going to give our dads the cards there. It’s going to be fun. There’s gonna be games, and door prizes, and cake, too.”

Robbie glanced up briefly from sticking googly eyes seemingly at random onto the paper- his cousin would definitely get a kick out of those- and returned to his task, not really paying much attention to the kids discussing their dinner plans. They all seemed pretty excited- well, no, scratch that. One kid didn’t seem super excited. He leaned over Trixie, pretending to look at her work.

“All right, Tricky?”

Lightning fast, her hand slammed over the card before he could see it. She twisted to give him a look that, for one second, seemed strained, before schooling her expression into a smirk.

“Duh, I’m gonna have the best card there! It’s gonna have glitter, and curly-q’s, and my dad’s gonna love it! _And_ we’re gonna win the grand prize door prize! It’s gonna be great!”

“That grand prize is _mine_ ,” Stingy objected, and immediately Trixie and Stingy fell to squabbling over who was going to win it, and the tension seemed to have slightly bled out of Trixie’s shoulders as they fell into their familiar game.

Well, it was loud, but he supposed he’d walked into it. Oh well.

Robbie stayed with the kids long enough to make his card, and then he decided he’d had his fill of social interaction for the day and peaced out as quickly as he could. He got home to find a paper airplane from Sportacus waiting on his entry hatch- he was having a nice time with his dad, he hoped Stephanie had remembered to tell Robbie where he was so he wouldn’t worry, and he missed Robbie very much and would see him tomorrow when he got home. Underneath his signature, he’d included a drawing of him and his father doing jumping jacks, and another of himself and Robbie holding hands. This one had hearts and flowers drawn around it. Robbie rolled his eyes, and then carefully tucked the letter away into the folder with the rest.

Well, looked like he was on his own for the night. He headed to the microwave to make himself a bowl of popcorn, and then it would be movie time. He vaguely recalled there was a Vampire Mummy Werewolf marathon on tonight, and that was always good for an evening alone.

-/-

Robbie dozed off sometime during the third Vampire Mummy Werewolf movie, and woke up at least two movies later to the sound of the hatch to his home being flung aside. He sat up, baffled, at the sounds of a figure rattling down the tube, just in time to see it spit Trixie out onto his floor.

This was not that unusual; Trixie broke into his house to mope often, and he was about to launch into their usual banter about how didn’t she ever _knock_? when she suddenly burst into tears right there on the floor.

The banter fell from his mind immediately and he was at her side before he’d even made the conscious decision to be.

“No no no, it’s okay, Puck, I’ve got you.” 

He scooped her up and carried her over to his chair, settling down in it and letting her curl up in his lap. He had _no_ idea how to talk to a crying child, but Trixie didn’t seem interested anyway. Instead he patted her awkward while she cried herself out, wondering at what point he should ask her just what, exactly, was wrong, and what Sportacus would do if he were there.

“Do you, um, want to talk about it?” he asked, when she finally seemed to calm down a little. She said nothing, burying her face in his shirt some more instead. He sighed. “You don’t have to.”

“It’s stupid,” she mumbled.

“You’ve been damping my clothes over something stupid?”

A long silence. She sniffled a few times, and he was fairly certainly she was trying to discreetly dry her eyes on his waistcoat.

“My dad didn’t come to the banquet,” she said quietly, after what felt like an eternal wait. “I m-made him a medal a-and he sa-id he’d be there but then he never showed. I waited for him. A-and all my fr-iends saw me there al, alone, and Ms. Busybody said that, that it was o-okay and, and, and the Mayor said tha, that, that I could still e-enter the raffle if I wanted, but, but, he never came.”

“Oh, Tricky.” He tightened his hold on her. He’d never met her dad once in his life, which was probably for the best. He’d also never wanted so strongly to break anyone’s neck in his life.

“It’s not fair,” she said, as a fresh wave of tears shook her. “It’s not _fair_! Why does everyone else get good dads and not _me_? Pixel even has _two_ dads! It’s not _fair_!”

“I know, kid.” He rested his chin on the top of her head. He’d never felt his own lack of a father, but he imagined a complete lack had to be better than a father who was there, but never really _there_.

“Why couldn’t you be my dad instead?” she mumbled, and he laughed.

“I’m not exactly father material.”

“You’re better than my dad.”

“That’s not a high bar to clear, kid.”

She shrugged, and fell silent again, but after a few minutes she pulled away, scrubbing one sleeve over red eyes. “Um, I made you something,” and reached into the bib of her overalls to take out a folded sheet of construction paper.

It was the card she’d been making earlier. His eyes widened, and he took it gently, almost reverently, from her. It was fairly well made. There were pipe cleaners glued inside one half, to give it a nice fuzzy texture, and on the other a drawing of himself and her hugging, surrounded by glitter. Above it, she’d written “Number One Villainous Dad”.

Robbie did _not_ cry.

He just. Got some glitter in his eyes. And that made them water a bit. And then he inhaled some. And had to sniffle it out.

Okay, he cried a _little_.

“I hope it’s okay,” she said, so faint he almost couldn’t hear her.

“It’s fine.”

-/-

Trixie stayed where she was for awhile, and was asleep when the hatch opened and Sportacus dropped down into the room. Robbie hastily shushed him before he could call his usual greeting, but he needn't have, because Sportacus looked like he was tired enough to keel over anyway.

"I thought she'd be here," he said, relieved. "I just got back half an hour ago and her mom said she hadn't come home and I promised I'd look for her."

"She's been here," Robbie said, carefully tucking Trixie into Sportacus's arms without waking her. "Here, you take her home, I don't think this should be the time that I finally get around to meeting her parents."

Something about the dark look in his eye must have told Sportacus everything he needed to know, because he didn't object, instead waking Trixie enough to cling like a baby monkey to his back while he climbed up the chute to the surface. Robbie watched them leave, and then went to set the card she'd made him somewhere safe. While he was searching for somewhere he found the card he'd made his cousin, and drummed his fingers irritably on his arm for a moment before making a decision.

He grabbed a nearby piece of stationary and wrote a quick message, stuck both it and the card into an envelope, and sent them both away with a wave of his hand before he could change his mind.

By the time he'd done that, and with putting up the card, Sportacus had returned, looking exhausted. Robbie snorted.

"Thought you weren't coming home till tomorrow," he said, looping an arm around Sportacus's shoulders and steering him to the fluffy chair. Sportacus shrugged.

"I'd blame time zones but-" He yawned, and leaned into Robbie's side. "To be honest I just missed everyone. Also time zones."

-/-

While Robbie was settling into his chair with Sportacus, in another part of the world, a long, thin spidery man in thermals woke up to an envelope landing on his face. He sat up with a 'wazzuh?' and squinted blearily in the dark at the envelope.

"Whazzat?" asked a muffled voice beside him, buried under three layers of soft pillows. The spidery man shushed him absently and swung his long limbs out of bed so he could flip on the bedside lamp.

"Go back to sleep, you nuisance," he said, and the figure responded by rolling over and doing just that. "Well well, a letter from little Robbie. Don't get many of those." He carefully slipped a thumb into the poorly-sealed envelope and took the letter out first.

 _Glanni_ , (it read)

_I know this is absurd and try not to read too much into it, but my kids were making Father's Day cards today and persuaded me to join them. I didn't really have a father to make a card **for** , obviously, but I got to thinking and, well, I guess you did do a lot for me that my father would have if I'd had one. And you could have done a much worse job than you did. Anyway, happy whatever or something._

_-Robbie_

"Huh. Since when does little Robbie have kids?" Glanni turned the paper over and over in his hands, looking for anything else, and then took the card out. It was a folded sheet of construction paper, empty on the outside and inside adorned with googly eyes of all sizes. Glanni let out a guffaw at that, waking the figure beside him again.

"Wh'r you 'wake?"

"Oh, hush, you." He waved a shushing hand, and it was caught by a hand snaking out from under the nest of pillows. He rolled his eyes. "You're the one that needs an impossible amount of sleep here, not _me_."

He chanced a glance down, and found a pair of sleep-addled blue eyes peeking out at him, and finally relented.

"All right. You win, nemesis mine." He set the letter, card, and envelope on the table, switched off the lights, and let himself be coaxed back into the cosy nest with the elf beside him.

He'd have to make inquiries about Robbie's apparent fatherhood later.

**Author's Note:**

> Want to see more from me? Hit me up on Tumblr at Grifalinas!


End file.
